Where is Amish Country?
Where is Amish country? If you were to ask that question in Ohio, the answer would be Holmes County. There we have the largest Amish settlement in the world. In truth, this region of Plain People sprawls out over all of the adjoining counties, too, but Holmes County is the center of it. Its rolling hills and secluded pasture lands reminded the earliest Amish settlers of their lands in the foothills of Germany and Switzerland, and the first group settled here in the Killbuck Valley in 1807, led by Jakob Miller, who brought a group over from Somerset County in Pennsylvania.
But “Amish Country” now could be just about anywhere in America. It seems almost every state and region has its own Amish/Mennonite population. And new settlements are springing up in far-flung places. For instance, I met an Amish bishop at a library talk I gave in Batavia, New York last March. He had brought a group of Old Order Amish people up to New York from the area around Mt. Hope, in Holmes County, Ohio. They needed cheap land, and they wanted to start a more conservative church in a remote part of America, someplace where they wouldn’t be bothered by the in-press of us English or Yankee folk. Holmes County Amish have settled as far north as Ontario, Canada, and as far south as Florida, all looking for good land to farm and quiet, untroubled places to live.
But there is one interesting exception to that notion, in Sarasota, Florida. In that sprawling coastal metropolis, parked right in the middle of the most English of worlds, sits the little Amish community of Pinecraft, Florida, where small homes and trailers cluster around a few Amish establishments, most notably, Troyer’s Dutch Heritage Restaurant and Gift shop, on Bahia Vista Blvd. It is a quintessentially Amish community, but there are no farms and no horses and buggies like we have in Ohio. Instead, this is rather more like a sleepy retirement community of mixed Amish and Mennonite persuasions, and the people there ride around on bicycles and tricycles. Then when the buses pull in from Ohio each week, everybody comes out to see who has made the trip. It will be retired Holmes County farmers and whole families in winter, going down for a visit with friends and relatives. The buses from Ohio travel straight through, with one driver taking a three-hour shift at the wheel, while a second driver sleeps in a small compartment built at the front of the bus. A friend of mine drives that trip quite often, and he says that the whole Pinecraft community meets the bus, everyone curious to see who has come down for a seaport vacation near the beaches at Longboat and Siesta Keys.
So as to my original question? Where is Amish Country? Well, it seems now, it is anywhere a Greyhound bus can travel. Amish people on a Florida vacation! What a picture.
Tags: Amish, Holmes County, Ohio Amish Mysteries
» Katie M. says:
January 16th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Hey Paul,
I just wanted to commend you on your book Cast a Blue Shadow. My name is Katie and I am a sophomore at the C.O.W. I recently read the book over our Christmas break because it was recommended to me by my grandmother who in fact has most if not all of your other books. I’ve lived in Wayne County all my life just 10 minutes outside of town and now attend the College of Wooster. Although I’m not a chemistry major, (a history major actually), I thourghly enjoyed the book. You protrayed the Amish in a very pleasent and realistic light and still provided entertainment with an unexpected yet interesting ending involving the poison. So thank you for writing the book! I look forward to reading your others when my schedule allows for more pleasure reading!
Sincerely,
Katie Moser
» Paul says:
January 17th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Thanks, Katie, for your comments about Cast a Blue Shadow. I am very happy to know that you liked the book. When you are able to read the other stories, please let me know what you think of them, too. As you know, my lead character is a history professor, and that is because I so much admired the history professors I knew at the college. I will likely have a new book at the Buckeye Book Fair this November, so maybe I’ll see you there. In the meantime, good luck with your studies. History is a worthy discipline.